Introduction
Toyota Motor Corporation is a manufacturer of automobiles based in Tokyo, Japan. At a specific time period, the company faced a challenge related to the recall crisis. The problem occurred because of the mistakes of the engineers. Such circumstances created difficulties for the company, and these challenges required change in management solutions. In order to effectively manage organizational change, a plan for its implementation is proposed.
Background
Toyota Motor Corporation is a large automobile-manufacturing Japanese company. In 2009 it faced a serious recall crisis, which started with a horrifying car incident in the USA 2009 (Choi & Lee, 2018)). Because of the engineers’ mistake, the vehicles were not working properly, and as a result, four passengers died in the vehicle (Choi & Lee, 2018). The company started to receive a large number of complaints and faced an organizational challenge.
Organization Challenge
In the time of the recall crisis, Toyota Motor Corporation recalled a large number of vehicles. The organizational challenge was to improve the quality of the vehicles and at the same time to save the reputation of the company. Because the errors of the engineers caused serious damage, the number of complaints from the clients started to grow. The circumstances connected with the errors in vehicle engineering created many risks for Toyota Motor Corporation. First of all, the organization faces massive financial and technical problems, so it is required to change the organizational model and improve the quality of the products.
Change Agents and Stakeholders
The change agents are engineers because they are responsible for constructing the proper engineers. The stakeholders are managers and the CEO of the company. These figures are to come up with the decisions about the change and the reaction to the occurred challenge. This problem was caused by the floor mat blocking the accelerator pedal. The sticky accelerator has been quoted by several engineers. It was then assumed that the accidental acceleration was due to an electronic device failure. Rather than soothing the market, Toyota’s actions encouraged owners to worry about their safety and potential buyers to look for alternative manufacturers and models. Toyota and its dealer network suffered further losses due to uncertainty from Toyota’s distributors, resulting in costly recalls, litigation, and business losses, and Toyota and its dealer network with significant discounts (Austen-Smith et al., 2017). The recall incurred an additional loss. Toyota experts have developed and thoroughly tested an efficient and easy-to-understand system. The accelerator pedal assembly is reinforced with a precisely cut steel reinforcement bar that removes the extra friction that rarely caused the pedals to stick together.
Proposed Change Model
Most businesses need to focus on customer or consumer enjoyment rather than on huge profits. Arrogance, and the decision to ignore high-quality signals when problems arise, are challenges faced by most businesses. Toyota did not respond until the number of incidents and media protests was large enough to pierce their rebellious skull (Choi & Lee, 2018). Perhaps it was not much quality that led Toyota to this dilemma, but the quality of leadership, including technology choices and ground commitment. For effective root cause analysis, a company or organization needs to exchange design and manufacturing information, as well as traceability data, with its suppliers.
The adaptive cycle is the concept that genuinely explains the levels each corporation takes with a view to undertake adjustments and keep growing and developing. It may be used to explain Toyota’s extruded control and implementation of the latest answers to present issues. The four levels of the organization’s transition manner are described via way of means of this model: equilibrium, novel combinations, crisis, and entrepreneurship (Choi & Lee, 2018). Within the can/need context, those steps may be described. In other words, the organization passes through numerous levels primarily based totally on the extent of ambiguity surrounding its targets and methods of engaging in them.
Proposed Diagnostic Model
To overcome the crisis and prevent future crises, companies need to assess their strengths and potential since this helps to implement certain adjustments. The proposed diagnostic model, thus, is the adaptive cycle model. The identified problems of the company that caused the crisis are related to quality control or quality control agency, human resource management, especially corporate culture issues, and the company’s organizational structure. After clarifying the cause of the crisis, the company moved to a new combination in the third quadrant. In the fourth quadrant of the adaptive cycle model, called entrepreneurship, organizations ensure their goals, but they are not yet able to organize large-scale implementations.
Diagnostic Plan
Planning is always guided by the data collected in the past but seeks to determine and control the enterprise’s future development. Therefore, the reliability of planning depends on the accuracy and correctness of the data from the past years. Any enterprise planning is based on incomplete data, diagnostic included. In the end, the strategic plans that will be established after the diagnostic should be designed so that changes can be made to them, and the plans themselves should be interconnected with the existing conditions. Diagnostics should occur on the organizational level, as it allows the enterprise to review its work from all aspects: human resources, operational activity, accounting, and others.
The diagnostic plan needs to be designed in a way that reflects brand’s mission and previous accomplishments. Thus, as the adaptive cycle model is used, the plan will be based on it, ensuring the consecutive review of all departments to determine the weak spots. Data should be collected in multiple ways: first, a survey among all employees should be conducted, in which questions about the company’s effectiveness in various spheres should be asked. For example, the survey could inquire about the efficiency of the managing lead or separate departments, or it could ask how the employees see the company’s work in the near future. Another way to collect data would be one-on-one interviews with managers and department heads, as they manage the operations on a peculiar level and recognize the flaws that could be present in their field. They could be asked to describe the possible improvements in their respective departments or to provide their opinion on whether the company’s current market strategy supports its development and growth.
Finally, diagnostic plans must be designed to remain consistent over long periods and be flexible enough to be modified and reoriented as needed. The overall diagnostic plan should be seen as the program that evaluates the company’s activities over an extended period of time. Moreover, it should realize that a conflicting and constantly changing business and social environment makes constant adjustments inevitable. The strategic plan based on the diagnostics conducted needs to be supported by extensive research and evidence relevant to the time and current state of the market. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly collect and analyze not only the data collected from the inside but the information about the sectors of the national economy, the market, and competition.
Organizational/Departmental Records and Reports
An employee’s education, qualifications and work experience are not as important for the head of the organization as the specific result. The major criterion for assessing the evaluation of work is the personnel’s overall performance. Any company’s effectiveness is closely connected with the efficiency of its structural divisions, as well as the rational cooperation of adjacent structural divisions and labor resources.
All indicators designed to assess the performance of any structural unit can be conditionally divided into quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative indicators can be estimated with a certain degree of accuracy: for example, the execution of plans, the number of processed documents and requests, and the number and amount of sales. They are usually structured into plans and issued to each department as a reminder of the goal in a given month or another reporting period.
As for the qualitative indicators of work efficiency, the situation with them is much more complicated since it is not so easy to determine the quantitative standard. In this case, a point or percentage scale of expert assessments is most often used. For example, autoresponders, after a client’s conversation with a company employee, always offer to rate their work on a 10-, 5-point scale or with other methods. This is done in order to give quantitative weight to the qualitative indicators of the work of an employee or an enterprise as a whole. Any assessment of the performance is not intended to punish an employee or the entire department for failure to meet quantitative targets in terms of performance indicators or for lack of customer satisfaction. It is needed to identify the weaknesses of the workforce and, use incentive measures to improve the current situation.
In a separate large section, one needs to highlight corporate culture as a motivational tool in the form of core beliefs that are conveyed to all hired employees. Some researchers are of the opinion that this is an extremely fashionable trend in business, while others believe that this is a vital component of the company in terms of the atmosphere, subordination, and ethics. It can be concluded that the corporate culture unites all employees of the enterprise to work together according to the established rules and standards.
Observation
Thus, to ensure that the enterprise’s overall performance is well-assessed, the efficiency of the organization’s different departments needs to be evaluated. Sorescu (2017, p. 695) also supplies that “big data offers many opportunities to update business models and create new ones.” The managing lead and the heads of departments should provide the data for the assessment. Moreover, the company’s employees should be surveyed in an anonymous manner in order to gain a more objective view of the enterprise’s operational activity and organizational culture. Therefore, managers, department heads, and employees need to be observed.
Plan for Implementing Change
One of the most relevant solutions for my professional area is to change human resource management. It is possible to change the structure of the organization. The potential path for the company’s development becomes clear when these changes are made. As was already mentioned, there is a big need to improve human resource management. First, it is crucial to identify if the engineers possess enough knowledge, skills, and experience in order not to miss some possible technical problems. For instance, one of the possible solutions is to create a new additional test to check the competence of the professionals. Next, a sense of responsibility should be developed in all of the company team members. According to Cummings and Worley (2018), organizational values and culture are the main parts of the group design, and they primarily affect the efficiency of group work. For that, the new values of the company related to the quality emphasis should be addressed.
Intervention Plan
There are several steps to be undertaken in order to implement the problem solution. First, a committee will be formed to oversee quality issues at a later stage. Next, put together a crisis management team and a crisis management plan. Third, TMC car companies need to be split into four entities, each with the most appropriate business model. The next idea is to consolidate sales, marketing, production, and technology management activities in one place to improve communication between departments. Another solution to this problem is the reorganization of regional groups. Another way is to change relationships with partners and stakeholder communication.
First Data Collection Outcome
The complexity and turbulence of modern markets, as well as an increase in the speed of obtaining information and new knowledge, determine the need to develop new methods and tools of management activities. Lukianov et al. (2020) suggest that the company needs to use each and every aspect of corporate governance, including risk management. A distinctively new approach has to ensure economic growth, and increase the production and competitiveness of enterprises on both domestic and global markets. Therefore, the most important resource capable of creating a flexible, adaptive, and effective socio-economic system is the organizational culture of an enterprise. Jankoff (2021, p. 31) states that “a culture that is risk averse, or very process is driven, is almost by definition discouraging employees from acting in an entrepreneurial manner.” New approaches to management presuppose, first of all, the creation of a strong organizational culture of the appropriate type. This culture would specifically contribute to the growth of personnel and, through it – to the innovative potential of the organization as a whole.
As a possible strategy to implement changes, Toyota could implement several practices in its businesses that prove to be important and critical for improving the situation. The first step, as has already been mentioned earlier, would be the support of employees’ initiatives from the top management of the company. Stollberger et al. (2019, p. 13253) demonstrate that “manager behaviors have an extended reach and not only influence their direct reports, but act through them, and affect the work performance of employees at lower levels.” It should also be visible to ordinary employees that in Toyota company, the priority and importance of ensuring workplace safety and stability are communicated by senior management at regular meetings and at official events. Next, an effective communication campaign should be implemented to ensure the employees’ awareness of the latest changes in workplace guidelines, as well as any other corporate news. In addition to strong visual associations, Toyota should maintain a constant flow of information on current corporate politics using internal communication resources, such as local intranet communication platforms and corporate television. These communications should be aimed at all employees of the company.
The first step of this intervention plan refers to the organizational culture adopted in the company – it should seek to establish an effective culture that supports innovation and motivates better performance. Kraśnicka et al. (2017, p. 745) state that “innovation-supportive culture stimulates the generation of new solutions or their absorption from the outside and contributes to the more effective implementation of creative ideas.” Thus, organizational culture is rightfully considered one of the main components of a complete and effective management system of team motivation. Mitra (2020) supports this claim, stating that the diversity of approaches based on communication is the key to understanding the concepts of entrepreneurship, innovation, and development, as they are linked with people, organizations, and the environment. Thus, it is safe to conclude that adopting a supportive innovation culture would be a wise choice for Toyota.
Second Data Collection Outcome
An alternative strategy could also prove to be beneficial for the Toyota company. First, regular briefings should be an essential part of this strategy. These are short conversations at the workplace of an employee, which an immediate supervisor conducts with them on a very narrowly specialized topic. Delegach et al. (2017, p. 737) claim that “a transformational leadership style can enhance followers’ promotion motivation and in turn can contribute to employees’ affective commitment in general.” This approach is aimed at providing the employees with opportunities to voice their opinions and propose improvements or adjustments.
Additionally, the managers should educate the employees on their understanding of the risks that may arise for their products if they do not comply with certain rules. According to Williams et al. (2018, p. 43), “the true benefit for a firm appears to lie not in any one particular action but in a conglomeration of strategic thinking approaches.” The questions asked to the employees at the end of the conversation should prompt them to evaluate their workplace, work, and behavior. Moreover, the employees should also be encouraged to think about what they could change in their work in order to avoid such risks.
Plan to Manage Changes
It would also be wise for the top management of the company to actively engage in the development and adjustment of existing guidelines for the employees, providing them with the best working experience. For example, Toyota’s top management could support the workplace improvement initiatives that come from the employees. Additionally, the managing lead needs to consider employees’ opinions – using surveys and polls to evaluate their reactions to changes in the management strategy. This will allow the management to continuously analyze the results of the implemented changes and adjust them when needed. Communication, information, and awareness-raising for employees of all levels are also ethical approach that helps establish a healthy organizational culture in a company. This can be achieved through the inclusion of quality and safety culture issues in the agenda of regular meetings of managers of various levels.
Conclusion
In order to overcome such challenges, the Toyota company needs change implementation and crisis management process. The work investigated this process using an adaptive cycle model. Since the process of implementing changes is clearly the same, it has been shown that this model can be used to describe and analyze all changes in any organization. Toyota is still one of the world’s leading automakers, and recent developments have helped overcome adversity. The company is currently in equilibrium, suggesting that the next loop will undoubtedly happen in the future.
References
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